It’s the last month of school for many Ontario students, and it’s the last month of Janneke’s last year in elementary school. She’s our youngest child, so this is a significant time for us as a family. We’ve accessed different schools over the years for all four of our children: government-funded systems (public and Catholic)…
Thinking about ties that bind usually elicits warm feelings or perhaps sad, nostalgic memories of a loved one. Why did the request to write on this theme bring up feelings of anger and pain for me? Because the ties that bind can also hurt, leaving deep wounds. That seems all too common in my world…
Dear Mom, It’s been so long since we’ve talked. I never had the chance to say goodbye. We all expected you to come home from the hospital the next day. But that changed. Forever. I think of you often. I have a lifetime of good memories. When I got engaged to Jack one of the…
When you read this, I will be within 100 km of the end of a pilgrimage for the second time. Together with my husband and three children, I’ll be spending this Easter walking the Camino de Santiago. For my children, it will be a first. My husband and I were pilgrims in 2005 before our…
“Wait ‘til your father gets home!” How many times did my miscreant behaviour provoke those words from my mother’s lips? Make no mistake – Ma had a penchant for law and order and she was quite capable of meting out immediate discipline. But this was her trump card for especially exasperating infractions. Did she realize…
My mother came to visit recently and brought a gift that surprised me. It was a gold chain, one of the pieces of jewellery she has worn most often. She gave it to me as I was helping her unpack, and at first, I wasn’t sure if she meant it. The chain sits secure in…
Dear Parents and Caretakers, Something needs to be brought to your attention: your child needs you. This might seem obvious, but I think more time needs to be spent contemplating this statement. It is well known that Gen Zs are significant recipients of mental health struggles. Increased pressures – both academic and societal – as…
It might have been my worst birthday yet: a four a.m. wake-up call from a child who hasn’t slept well since we uprooted years ago. A child with a stomach bug. Another’s meltdown that involved screams so deep they felt existential (and maybe like mourning). A job that has always felt beyond my grasp, which…
The day was sharp with cold but the sky was clear, and my grandmother wanted a walk. I’d come all this way, after all, she reminded me. No point in wasting the day inside. She lived alone in the last of her little houses, and, as a university student, I could get there on the…
I remember about five years ago, newly separated and in the thick of depression and emotional pain, I attended my church’s Blue Christmas service. It was my first Christmas in this new reality of no longer being a family of four, and I wasn’t quite sure how to handle it. And this service – created…
“Yes to your snotty mess coming on Saturday. That would be glorious!” was the text I sent to my one sister, hours before her arrival. Holidays are messy. There’s no way around it. Loved ones spill into our hallways and living rooms and bedrooms, filling them with the sounds of laughter and sniffly noses and…
“Mom, I don’t feel so good.” Little did I know that those words, spoken by my 24-year-old son, would be life changing. It was Thanksgiving Day in 2010 and I had just started our routine Thanksgiving day. Getting the dinner prepared and on the table for me and my son. I’m not the greatest cook…
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